MSN and NEWSWEEK PROMOTE and Profit from WELL KNOWN FRAUDS
My MSN provides a “White Pages” module run by the infamous Intelius, which will (fraudulently) turn your .99 cent search into a $44.90 per month subscription. There are already Class Action suits in California and in US federal court against Intelius for this particular fraud. Intelius has cheated thousands of people, and has been doing it for a couple of years. Microsoft and MSN know about it, but still keep participating. I think Microsoft, MSN and Google ought to have been named as defendants in those lawsuits, I hope somebody will go after them, too. By the way, I just bought a new pc six months ago, it will be my last. Unless the people at Microsoft do something to redeem themselves, like apologize and refuse to run advertising for for Cheats like this, I will never buy another Microsoft product, and NEVER have another good word to say about them. Apple has never cheated me, my next machine will be a Mac.
And then there’s Newsweek. Following a link from My MSN to a Newsweek article took me to a page with an ad for one of those “Work at home for Google” SCAMS. Finding it hard to believe that Newsweek could stoop so low, I clicked on it, and sure enough, it was one of those Scams. For one thing, after this I will never click on another ad on MSN or Newsweek ad, because it was like clicking on a porno ad—they made it a chore just to get away. The other thing is, DOESN’T EVERYBODY ALREADY KNOW IT’S A SCAM? I just don’t understand how a Venerable Institution like Newsweek (Or any of them, see above!) KNOWINGLY consort with SCUM like this. WTF is WRONG with you people?
I ‘m not gonna take this sitting down anymore, and I’ll tell ya right now what I’m gonna do. I’m founding a Movement. Right here, right now.
I’m going to find a Member of Congress who will introduce two simple pieces of legislation.
The first will hold Media liable for knowingly running fraudulent advertising.
The second will TAX all forms of advertising.
To Hell with you rotten bastards.
March 26, 2010 at 7:47 am
I called up VALMAX- 888-241-0049 and threatened to sue them. I told them I called the BBB and my Attorney General, as well as MY attorney, and they said they would immediately credit me $307.30 that they sneekily took out of my account. It takes a few days apparently to get credited back to my account so I have not seen this yet.
My bank traced charged all the way back from January of 2009. I had done a background check on someone via PeopleLookup.com, and of course there was something on there (not obvious) that had signed me up for this value max thing (that i was not aware of and did not authorize). A woman who was supposidely a supervisor named VERONICA for the company immediately refunded me the over $300 that was charged over a period of 14 months. Funny how easy it was to refund the money. These guys are DEFINATELY scam artists!
I wanted to contact you and ask you if there was anything I could do. I had not noticed these charges for OVER a year. Imagine consumers out there who go YEARS without noticing this; and these VALMAX guys get all of this money? Is that even legal?
Any help/information would be extremeley appreciated and helpful.
March 26, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Alissa,
I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY, THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, IT’S JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!
So.
The name of the company behind this is “Intelius”. Val-Max is just a name they hide behind.
There is a big class-action lawsuit in Washington State (in federal court, so you don’t have to be a resident of Washington).
I recommend that you email the story you sent me to: kswope@KellerRohrback.com Karen is the Attorney in charge of the lawsuit, and all you have to do is send her your info, and eventually, when WE win, we’ll get our money back (plus 3X damages). Best of all, it doesn’t cost anything. You are a member of this class. (Maybe you could put that in the subject line…something like “Intelius, Member of Class”) When I sent my original email, she called me back the same day, I don’t know how it will be on Friday afternoon.
Sorry to break it to you, but calling Val-Max doesn’t do any good. They’re used to it, it’s part of the scam, and I bet you’ll never hear from them again, except that they probably won’t even stop stealing from you until you close the account.
I was lucky to see the first charge to my account the first day, so I reported my Visa Check-card as stolen, and got another card the next day. But I thought the money was gone.
The thing is, the first manager I talked to at the credit-union didn’t tell me about “charge backs”. (The attorneys didn’t either.) The first charge was for $24.95, but then another one for $19.95 showed up the next day, even after I closed the account (They told me it had “been in the system already”).
The second manager told me about charge backs, which is where you complain to VISA, report fraudulent use of your account, and VISA credits your account “provisionally” right away. Then VISA tries to get the money back from the crooks. I think there’s a 60-day window where VISA can deny your claim, but they didn’t deny mine, so I got my money back, on the spot. The bank manager fills out the form, you sign it, and they credit your account right then. (I think I’m still entitled to damages.) Just guessing, but there may be a time limit as far filing a claim like that, but….
Anyway, I hope this helps. Please let me know what happens.
The post on my blog with the gobbledy-guk latin title (it’s just a joke) has more ideas about getting more info. I especially recommend going to the “Seattle Weekly” website, and searching for “Intelius”. There’s a great article that explains everything, with tons of links, even a PDF of the court documents.
Jim Torzynski